


cursed or not

by casdoms (moffwithhishead)



Series: season 10 codas [11]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Day At The Beach, Episode: s10e18 Book of the Damned, M/M, Post-Episode: s10e18 Book of the Damned, slight angst? maybe?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 05:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3797854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moffwithhishead/pseuds/casdoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean huffs a laugh, shakes his head fondly and looks out at the ocean again, “Nobody mentions how fucking hot the sand gets on the beach.” </p><p>Castiel grins despite his own nerves and looks down at the bottle in his hands, “I understand that it’s not terribly pleasant, no.”</p><p>“Yeah but it’s like a lose-lose-lose situation, you know?” Dean opens up another beer and takes a sip of it before angling himself so he’s facing Cas a little bit, “You wear shoes, you get sand in them and it doesn’t come out for weeks. You don’t wear shoes, you run the risk of burning your feet or stepping on some assholes broken beer bottle. You wear fucking flipflops or something, you’re fighting the sand the whole damn way to keep the shoes on your feet.”</p><p>He leans back and rests his elbows on the sand, looking up at the sky and closing his eyes, “It’s kinda bullshit to be honest, Cas.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	cursed or not

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to keep this fluffy but??? also set in canonverse??? but...... one where dean just drives down to mexico one day because he knows sam is lying to him and he just wants that fucking vacation.

One day, Sam comes home to an empty bunker.

Dean left a note again - a longer one this time - and promised that a) he wasn’t a demon and b) he would be back, eventually. He just didn’t know when.

He checks Dean’s room to see if this is real or if this is some sort of joke before he makes two phone calls.

The first call is to Cas, asking if he can look for Dean. The second call is to Rowena, asking if she could meet him nearby to work some more on finding a fix for the Mark. 

 

* * *

 

Cas finds him sitting on a beach with his toes buried in the sand and a beer in his hands. He’s still wearing his t-shirt but he’s got swim trunks on and it makes Cas smile when he sees that they’ve got tiny little anchors on them.

They’re in Mexico.

It’s too late for spring break but there’s still a fair amount of people on the beach, college kids mostly, and Cas sticks out like a neon sign in his dress shirt and slacks (he’d left the tie and his coats back in the car). 

He sits down on the towel next to Dean without saying anything and rolls up the sleeves of his shirt.

Dean takes a sip of his beer silently and hands Cas a beer of his own.

He’s surprised but takes the beer and sips it, barely containing the face he wants to make when he tastes all of the molecules on his tongue.

Dean chuckles a little but it doesn’t sound as sincere as it should, “I was wondering when one of you would show up. Figured I might as well have some extras out here with me.” 

He finishes off the bottle in his hand and sets it down in the sand next to him where there’s already a couple empties waiting. 

Cas watches Dean’s profile and sips on the beer again, mostly out of habit.

“You wanna know somethin’ cool?” he starts talking abruptly but keeps his voice soft as he points out at the ocean, “There was a dolphin out there earlier. Saw the fin and everything. Fucker jumped clear out of the water.” 

A child runs past with their parents chasing them and laughing. Cas doesn’t need his grace to know how much it makes Dean’s heart ache.

“I’ve never seen a dolphin before, you know,” Dean informs him and finally turns to give Cas a small smile. 

“I know,” he confirms, returning the small smile. 

Dean huffs a laugh, shakes his head fondly and looks out at the ocean again, “Nobody mentions how fucking hot the sand gets on the beach.” 

Castiel grins despite his own nerves and looks down at the bottle in his hands, “I understand that it’s not terribly pleasant, no.”

“Yeah but it’s like a lose-lose-lose situation, you know?” Dean opens up another beer and takes a sip of it before angling himself so he’s facing Cas a little bit, “You wear shoes, you get sand in them and it doesn’t come out for weeks. You don’t wear shoes, you run the risk of burning your feet or stepping on some assholes broken beer bottle. You wear fucking flipflops or something, you’re fighting the sand the whole damn way to keep the shoes on your feet.”

He leans back and rests his elbows on the sand, looking up at the sky and closing his eyes, “It’s kinda bullshit to be honest, Cas.” 

“You’re not liking the beach?” Cas asks with a raised eyebrow as he awkwardly tries to mirror Dean’s position and finds out he can’t - apparently his shirt does not allow for that much movement in his shoulder blades. 

Dean hums a little bit and shrugs after a beat, “Nah, I like it. I just...” He gets this sad little smile on his face, “I don’t know, man. People always talk about the beach like it’s the best thing in the world, you know? I just... I don’t know.”

Cas considers this for a moment before he reluctantly pulls the dress shirt off, blushing when he realizes how this might look.

He finally settles down on the towel and turns his head to look at Dean again, smiling when he sees some new freckles, “I think I understand. The last time I spent any real time on a beach was...” 

He narrows his eyes and tries to think when the last time he went to a beach and didn’t just do a quick pop in, pop out.

“With my brothers a very...” Cas smiles sadly and shakes his head a little bit, “Very long time ago.” 

Dean flashes him a grin before just flopping down against the soft sand with a satisfied thud, “One day, you’re going to tell me exactly how old you are, Cas. You’re going to tell me and then every year I’m gonna throw you a big fucking party and we’re gonna have to do it in abandoned buildings.” 

Cas frowns a little bit, “Oh?” 

“Yeah dude,” Dean lifts up his sunglasses to give Cas a ‘duh’ look, “Cause there’s gonna be so many candles that the whole building is gonna catch on fire.” 

He snorts involuntarily and rolls his eyes, “I don’t think there are enough candles in existence to provide an accurate count for how old I truly am, Dean.”

His friend just shrugs and angles his body towards Cas a little more as he lays back down again, “I’ll figure something out, man. You’re not getting out of this without wearing one of those awful birthday hats at least once.”

“Why does it have to be my birthday for me to wear the hat?” Cas asks reasonably, squinting at Dean, “I can just wear the hat. There are no birthday hat police that are going to come arrest me, Dean.” 

“ _Caaaaaas_ ,” Dean groans through a laugh and rubs a hand over his face, “Dude, just go with it, holy shit.” 

Cas bites back a smile and looks down at his hands, “Apologies. I will make a note to just ‘go with it’ from now on whenever you ignore logic.” 

Dean makes a put-upon noise and gestures enthusiastically, “Thank you! It only took you... like fuck, what? Six? Eight years?” 

“I prefer to think of it as 47,” Cas replies casually and takes another sip of his beer.

“Your trip down to hell doesn’t count, dude,” Dean squawks a little bit and rolls onto his side to pout at Cas. “You didn’t even like...  _know_ me, know me, y’know?”

There’s a million things he could say to that.

He could tell Dean that he suspects he’s always known Dean in some way. He could tell his friend that the first time he laid eyes on his soul, Cas had known him. He could tell Dean that he has held his soul, pieced him back together, seen everything in him - the good and the bad. 

He could tell him that, but he won’t.

Because Dean is grinning at him now, the beer in his hands hovering about an inch away from his mouth. It’s a real, genuine smile, one that Cas hasn’t seen on his friend in a long time.

So he grins back and ducks his head as if he’s conceding to a point, “Touche.”

Dean whoops, pumps a fist in the air, and takes a sip of his beer. Cas laughs and finishes his own beer off in one go, just to have something to do with his mouth and his hands besides kiss the man across from him.

 

* * *

 

They stay there on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

Cas left to grab some food and beer and water for the two of them a few hours ago, but Dean’s been here all day. 

They laughed a lot while they ate dinner. They talked about nothing important, nothing relevant, and Dean teased Cas endlessly for being the only dude in ‘business casual’ on the whole damn beach. 

Now the beach is almost empty.

There’s no one left in their immediate vicinity, just a couple tourists walking further down the beach, holding hands as the sun sets. 

“Hey,” Dean bumps their shoulders together and puts his sunglasses on top of his head. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad of an idea would it be for me to go skinny dipping right now?” 

Castiel snorts and looks up at Dean, feeling more relaxed than he has in a very long time, “Ten  _thousand_ , Dean.” 

“Welp,” Dean claps his hands on his thighs and nods, “Now I  _have_  to do it.” 

The other man laugh/groans and rolls over onto his back, rubbing a hand over his face, “This is a terrible idea.” 

Dean stands up and yanks his shirt off, tossing it onto Cas’ face, “The best ones are!” 

He squawks a little bit when the sweaty shirt smacks him before half-heartedly tossing it back at Dean, “Your terrible ideas are still terrible, Dean.” 

“Says the guy who thought working with Crowley and opening purgatory was a great plan.” 

Castiel feels the tips of his ears heat up a little bit and he squints at Dean.

It’s a lot darker now so he’s not entirely sure if the other man sees it but, still. It’s the principle of the matter.

“Hey,” Dean drops down on the sand in front of Cas and pulls him up into a sitting position, “Come get in the water with me.”

Castiel blinks owlishly when he realizes how close their faces suddenly are, “Um.” 

Dean actually giggles and moves so he’s sitting on his ass instead of on his knees, “Listen, I know you’ve got your groove back and everything but come  _on_. You’ve got to live a little every once in a while, man.” 

He stares at the hopeful look his friend is giving him before sighing in defeat after only a few seconds, “Fine.”

“WOOHOOO!” Dean pumps his fist in the air before getting up again and running towards the water. He stops just where the water is hitting his ankles and slips off his swim trunks, tossing them back at Cas.

They land only a few feet away from their towel but Cas picks them up on his way down to the water and throws them back to safety where his pants are.

It is a nude beach, and they haven’t seen anyone come by in a few minutes, so... it’s not like this could end  _that_  badly. 

The water is warm when he steps into it and Dean rewards him with a blinding smile as he moves closer. They both make a point to stay in the waist deep water, which isn’t that safe but, y’know. Dean’s a little drunk on hope, Cas is a little drunk on Dean’s smile. It’s fine.

“Hey,” Dean says quietly when they’re close again, his face soft.

“Hello,” Cas replies easily, a dopey smile on his face. 

The moonlight is beautiful on both of them and they get caught up in admiring the view. Not the ocean in front of them, not the gorgeous beach behind them.

Dean moves first, grabbing Cas’ hand and starting to walk a little further into the deeper water.

Cas lets the other man pull him easily and just frowns at Dean, “We shouldn’t be this far out, Dean... you’re not entirely sober...” 

“You’ll save me,” he replies easily with a small shrug. “You always do.” 

They drift together when the water’s up to the middle of their chests and Cas wraps an arm around Dean’s waist carefully, just wanting to keep him safe, “Not always.”

“Nobody does anything always, Cas,” Dean murmurs and wraps his own arm around Cas in return. 

They let themselves drift even closer until they’re pressed together from head to toe, feeling and very aware of every single inch of each other. Dean presses a quick kiss to the juncture of Cas’ neck and shoulder, sighing contently. 

There’s music playing somewhere. Maybe on a boat a little farther out. Maybe one of the resorts is playing something. Maybe there’s a party down the way that’s got their own set of speakers. 

Either way, Cas finds himself humming along to the slow sound of the guitar. They’re too far away to really understand what the singer is saying but he doesn’t think he needs to know the words to know what the song is about.

“You know something, Cas?” 

He hums in response and presses a kiss to Dean’s temple, swaying with the water a little bit.

“I know I’m gonna regret this,” Dean chuckles and wraps both of his arms a little bit tighter around Cas, “But - I’m... I’m tired of pretending, man. I’m so fucking...” He sighs, turning his head a little so it’s resting against Cas, “I’m just over this bullshit back and forth we’ve got going on.”

Cas smiles despite the butterflies in his stomach, lets Dean keep talking.

“Maybe this isn’t really that fair to you cause we both know my story’s not going to end well...”

His arms tighten around Dean protectively.

Dean smiles against Cas’ neck and sighs, “But... I do, you know.”

“Unfortunately Dean we don’t have a minister or a witness present so that doesn’t count,” Cas tries for humor even though he kind of wants to throw up.

“Jackass,” Dean mumbles fondly.

Neither one of them says anything for a few minutes, trying to put off what feels like the inevitable (because somehow admitting your feelings is more terrifying than taking on the devil himself).

“I just...” Dean tries again and stops Cas from moving, his own arms tightening a little bit, like he’s scared Cas might try to run. 

“If Hannah - if it had been me. Who had to choose between the army and, y’know...” He blushes and headbutts Cas’ chest gently, “Choose. I - I would.”

Castiel lets out a slightly breathless laugh, “You would?” 

Dean nods, a small grin forming on his face, “Yeah, Cas. Of course.”

He leans in and pulls Cas into a careful kiss, his arm wrapping around the other man’s neck.

It’s gentle in a way that takes a lot of effort for him, and Cas appreciates it, returning it just as gently. The moment is too fragile to do anything else, so he holds on tight and just prays that this lasts a little bit longer.

When Dean does pull away he rests their foreheads together and closes his eyes as a giddy laugh bubbles its way out of his chest. 

Cas isn’t much better, because he joins in a few beats later, “What?”

Dean shrugs a little, his eyes crinkling just enough to be seen in the moonlight, his voice getting softer, “Just, y’know... cursed or not.” 

“You’d rather have me?” 

“Mhmm,” Dean hums a little bit and presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Cursed or not.”


End file.
